Cuomo's pot plan gets raves from Bloomberg, Johnson

They say politics makes for strange bedfellows, so here's another example.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat and possible 2016 presidential candidate, is getting kudos from Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson for his call to decriminalize open possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Cuomo's proposal is a "welcome bit of sanity," says Johnson, a former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico. Still, Johnson believes it would be better to legalize marijuana outright in order to lift the burdens on police officers and the courts.

Possessing small amounts of marijuana "in public view" in New York is a misdemeanor that resulted in 50,000 arrests in the city last year, according to the New York City Police Department. Cuomo's proposal would help cut down on the number of arrests, but you still couldn't smoke pot in public.

A record 50% of Americans say marijuana use should be legal, according to a Gallup Poll from last October. Support for such a plan has moved up steadily since 1969, when only 12% of Americans said pot should be legalized.

Cuomo made his proposal Monday at a news conference in Albany. There are only three weeks left in New York's legislative session.

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About Catalina Camia

Catalina Camia leads the OnPolitics online community and has been at USA TODAY since 2005. She has been a reporter or editor covering politics and Congress for two decades, including stints at The Dallas Morning News and Congressional Quarterly. Follow her at @USATOnPolitics.